Posts tagged ‘Pan’

Don Cameron and Ed Dobrotka give the Prankster one of his more devious schemes in Action 77 (Oct.44).

The Prankster takes over a newsstand in the business centre of town, and makes a deal with a failed entrepreneur. The Prankster sells men fake copies of the Daily Planet, with news of the destruction of their factories or resources, and the businessman then quickly buys their company at a low price.

Of course, it’s not long before the Planet gets involved. Lois Lane and Clark Kent both have their names attached to phony stories. Superman figures out what has happened, but the Prankster has another twist to his plan, forcing his dupe to sell the companies to him for pennies, so the Prankster can then sell them back to their owners at hugely inflated rates.

Superman then steals what the Prankster has bought, making everything worthless again. It takes a while, but Superman finally makes sure that everyone owns what they did at the start, and the Prankster is back in prison, for a few months at least.

Mort Meskin gives the Rainbow Man a really hard time in this month’s Vigilante story.

The Rainbow Man’s men take advantage of the lax security when their boss is taken to the hospital, and break him out. Vigilante and Stuff learn from the doctor that the Rainbow Man really is quite sick, but doesn’t realize it.

In an enjoyable twist, Rainbow Man’s illness gives him colour-blindness. Ignoring his own men’s objections, Rainbow Man wears a green suit to match others wearing red. Vigilante spots him immediately, but wonders what his motive is in wearing the wrong colour.

Eventually Vigilante figures out the colour-blindness, but Rainbow Man basically does himself in, stopping his car at a green light, thinking that it’s red.

In the best Zatara story in a long, long time, Gardner Fox and William White pit the hero against the Greek god Pan. For his own amusement, Pan creates a coin that makes the owner’s every wish come true. Pan ensures that the coin eventually winds up with criminals.

For a while now, Zatara has been casting complex spells simply by saying them normally, and the “be it so” backwards. Kind of a cheap shortcut.

Still, Zatara does an impressive job outwitting Pan and the gang of thieves.